"There is a time That stands still When the needle breaks And vibrates the frequency of our death." From the song "Tepid" by Primitive Man

Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota are doom bringers and misery merchants No Funeral and Livid. Above is the cover art for their brand new split that contains three songs, two by No Funeral and one by Livd. Both bands play a similar style of sludge infused doom and both styles are incredibly heavy, dismal, abyssal and murky. These two bands bring a sound that is undeniably heavy and skull grinding and within three songs No Funeral and Livid bring the misery and pain in heaps.

This brand new split begins with Infection by No Funeral, an over eight minute slab of some of the most dismal and destructive doom you can get your hands on. The song begins with a low ominous hum of a guitar which spans across a minute and a half before the pounding drums and tolling bells appear providing you with a sound that makes you feel as though your life may just come to an abrupt end. Once you get deeper into Infection the song begins to breath and take off gifting you with slow dirges of bleak and completely hellish doom. No Funeral keeps Infection rolling at a slow burning pace making sure to drag you across the burning fields of the abyss as slow as possible. The guitars rumble and the vocalist roars blood thirsty growls all the way through until the track fades away into obscurity just for Disease Brought By Depression to begin.

This second track by No Funeral is more of the same and more of what you would come to expect from these doom bringers. Disease Brought By Depression is introduced by another ominous intro that is followed by slow mind melting riffs that are combined with once again pounding and bone cracking drums only to be supplemented by grizzly unearthly growls. This track much like the first by No Funeral is just as dismal and bleak providing you with even more anguished and torturous doom for you to buckle under. Not to mention, whether No Funeral meant to or not, within each song is a dense and twisting atmosphere that does its best to asphyxiate you. Once you press play a cold and horrid fog washes over you through both tracks leaving you feel as though death is lurking.

On the B-Side of things and to finish things off Livid presents False Hope. False Hope is an eighteen minute slab dragging track that presents you with a dark and mystifying tune for you to get lost in. Armed with fuzz lined riffs, rumbling bass lines and hypnotizing vocals, Livid takes you straight in to the darkness devoid of all light never for you to be seen again. False Hope paints a bleak and disparaging picture as it takes you through the dark and deep corners of your mind. False Hope is a memorable song even at the length that it is. Once you begin listening it is a song that is hard to forget and once you begin listening you become trapped in its vortex of doom. False Hope is a hypnotic dirge of doom that leads you right into a bottomless pit of despair and isolation. This track does a great job of leaving you feeling alone and bitter. This murky offering is a slow and somber march toward death and while listening you have no issues marching along. And even at this song’s length you never feel as though it is a burden to keep listening and you never want to stop listening. False Hope is a great closing track to this split with No Funeral as it makes you feel as though you are finally being laid to rest in the fetid dirt.

This split between these two abyss dwellers is something to behold. This split is monolithic, heavy and an overall great listen. Both bands have tracks on this release that are great and pure doom misery at its finest and if you are a fan of doom it really cannot get any better than this.